Mandatory Spirit wasn't exactly hard to find..
Cracked obsidian, scorched glass, the faint smell of something burning 'souls, Mandatory Spirit hadn't bothered hiding his path. Maybe he couldn't. Maybe he didn't care.
Corpse Mountain rose ahead, not one mountain, Nanashi realized, but the mountain, an entire range built from the dead, layered century over century, a throne room carved into a skull the size of a city.
Mandatory Spirit was waiting on the steps. Robes gone for good now, six-fingered hands loose at his sides, the burned half of his face catching the ember-light.
"You're too persistent," he said,
"You're too slow," Nanashi replied frankly,
Mandatory Spirit came in low, a feint, weight shifting toward Nanashi's left, claws aiming for the ribs. Nanashi pivoted on his back foot, let the claws pass an inch from his side, and brought his bow around in a short arc, not a strike, a redirect, catching Mandatory Spirit's wrist and using his own momentum to throw him past.
Mandatory Spirit twisted mid-air, landed on a wall of bone sideways, and pushed off it instantly, a second attack this time speaking again
"Stop"
Nanashi felt a strange pull holding him in place, then Mandatory Spirit spoke again
"kill Yourself"
Nanashi hands immediately went upwards to his neck, but stoped at his chest,
Mandatory Spirit did not wait for him to recover, he moved faster, both hands this time, scissoring toward Nanashi's neck.
Nanashi suddenly stepped forward,
Closed the distance before the strike could land, drove his shoulder into Mandatory Spirit's chest, and in the same motion brought his knee up, Mandatory Spirit folded around it, breath leaving him in a hiss, and Nanashi used the moment to grab both his wrists and pull, slamming him down onto the steps hard enough to crack obsidian.
"You're not fighting like an angel," Mandatory Spirit wheezed, grinning through it.
Nanashi's bow came down, not an arrow this time, just the weapon itself, a hard vertical strike Mandatory Spirit barely rolled clear of, the obsidian step splitting where he'd been a half-second earlier.
Mandatory Spirit came up swinging, three fast strikes, left, right, left each one faster than the last, and Nanashi blocked all three with the bow held horizontal, the impacts driving him back a step each time. The fourth strike Mandatory Spirit telegraphed on purpose, a wide overhead swing and when Nanashi moved to block it high, Mandatory Spirit's other hand was already coming in low, claws aimed at Nanashi's stomach.
Nanashi caught that wrist too. Both hands full now one holding the bow against the overhead strike, one gripping Mandatory Spirit's other wrist he simply headbutted him.
There was nothing elegant about it. Mandatory Spirit's skull cracked back, and Nanashi used the half-second of disorientation to twist both of Mandatory Spirit's arms behind him, drive a knee into the back of his leg, and put him face-first into the steps.
"This is for your sins against Aeon and man,"
Nanashi said quietly, and brought his knee down between Mandatory Spirit's shoulder blades.
Something cracked. Not bone buy something deeper,
"...okay," Mandatory Spirit said, voice muffled against obsidian. "Okay. I yield. You..."
"Enough."
The word landed like a dropped mountain.
Nanashi looked up.
At the top of the steps, where the skull-throne sat, something had been there the entire time, not hidden, just so still, so unmoving, that Nanashi's eyes had read it as part of the mountain.
A figure slouched sideways across the throne, one leg draped over the armrest, head propped on one fist, looking for all the world, like someone who had fallen asleep mid conversation,
The Lazy Corpse Emperor opened one eye.
"You,"
the Emperor said, voice a long, bored exhale, pointing one finger almost too lazy to lift at Mandatory Spirit,
"have been very loud today, too loud, so so loud than u needed to be?"
Mandatory Spirit's head snapped up that mad smile still on his face.
"My Liege, I can explain"
"You can't, actually."
The Emperor yawned an actual yawn, jaw cracking wide, somehow worse than any roar.
"I heard the whole speech. Northern Duke. Sixth Level. Claiming what's yours."
He shook his head slowly, like a disappointed parent.
"That's not loud because it's bold, Spirit, It's loud because it's stupid."
He stood.
He didn't lunge. He didn't even seem to hurry one moment he was rising from the throne, and the next he was simply there, directly above Mandatory Spirit, one massive hand already descending.
Mandatory Spirit barely got an arm up. The blow landed anyway sent him skidding backward down the steps, bouncing twice, slamming into a wall of bone hard enough to crack it lengthwise.
The Emperor didn't follow up immediately. He rolled his shoulders, like the single strike had been effort, an inconvenience.
Mandatory Spirit stood upright a smile still on his face, as his body slowly disintegrated, then said slowly
"i'll be seeing u, lazy fuck, and retarded pigeon"
The Emperor watched him go without much interest. Then, slowly, he turned his head toward Nanashi.
For a long moment, neither of them moved.
"Hm." The Emperor scratched the back of his skull, considering
"Feathered pigeon. Came all the way down here. Beat up my Duke"
He said it casually the way someone might describe the weather
"Should probably be mad about that."
and then he was gone again back to the top of the mountain, he sat back down on the throne, Sideways again, One leg over the armrest,
"...but I'm not, really."
He waved a hand toward the dark tunnel Mandatory Spirit had disappeared into
"Saves me the trouble of dealing with him myself. He's been getting ideas lately hmmm...in a way you did me a favor, honestly."
Nanashi said nothing, bow still loose in his hand, eyes locked on the Emperor.
The Emperor closed his eyes again.
"So"
Another yawn.
"Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna turn around, fly back up through that nice hole you made, and go home and while your at it greet that crackhead for me "
He cracked one eye open, just one, and for the briefest moment, something behind it wasn't lazy at all
"While I'm still in a good mood"
The eye closed.
"Wouldn't want to ruin a good mood over a pigeon."
Nanashi said nothing, just spread his wings and flew away once he was near he edges of hell, he said in a low voice
"a Gift from the Angel of Vengeance old fool"
His Bow came to life blazing with intensity the fire changed colours no longer red, or yellow but white just a blazing white so clean so pure
Nanashi drew the bow and fired, and then like a shooting star the whole of Hell went quite and the arrow flew like a straight black line on a white paper straight to Lazy Corpse Emperor
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The surroundings around the Corpse Mountain went white, as a "szzzzzzszzzzz" sound whizzed through the air, smoke around corpse mountain when the smoke cleared up the corpse mountain came into view, it was half shattered bones n. debris everywhere, Lazy Corpse Emperor stood an arrow held tightly in his right hand, Corpse Generals behind him he said nothing but looked at the far sky of Hell where his eyes met with Nanashi cold dead eyes.
For the first time Nanashi smiled then turned his wings blazing red furiously as he flew through and left Hell back into the mortal world, through this Lazy Corpse Emperor said nothing stared at Nanashi his the depths in his eyes multiplying in multiple folds by the second
From the Magma seas, on the Great Ship named "Endless Amada" stood
Golden D. Trash, he took in view as he let out a laugh, in his hands a glass of wine, he raised it high and said
"a toast to u my friend.....hahahahahahha" an upraious laughter leaving his mouth
From Various Places, several beings of hells
Generals, Dukes, Kings, Queens, Lords took notice, on this day Light, Light that thou art Holy had graced Hell, and the aftermath was not silent
Hell was stirring, and a storm was cooking